Yamsap compared with Audirvana.
These two get shortlisted together and they are not really the same kind of thing. Audirvana is a player, built to get one signal to one DAC as well as it can be got there. Yamsap is a server for a house with music in several rooms of it.
The short version.
The question that decides it is how many rooms you listen in. Almost everything else follows from that.
Buy Audirvana if
- You listen in one room, through one good DAC, and you want every last thing done to the signal on the way there.
- You have measured your room and want convolution or a parametric EQ to correct it.
- You play DSD.
- Your server has to run on Windows.
- You would rather pay once. Origin is a one-time licence at $119.90.
Buy yamsap if
- Music plays in more than one room, or you would like it to.
- You want the library to read like a record collection rather than a list of files.
- You want mixes and radio built out of your own shelves, rebuilt every night.
- You listen from a phone, a laptop or the car as much as from a listening chair.
- You want to open the library on a machine you are borrowing without installing anything on it.
Side by side.
Audirvana’s figures are the ones it publishes, as of August 2026. Its prices move with the country you buy from, so treat the number as the shape rather than the quote.
| yamsap | Audirvana | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $6.99 a month, or $5.99 billed yearly | Studio from about $6 a month yearly; Origin $119.90 once |
| Trial | 14 days | Yes |
| Plays music you own | Yes | Yes |
| Rooms playing at once | Every zone, together or apart | One output at a time |
| Rooms grouped in sync | Yes | No |
| Where audio goes | AirPlay, a Mac, phones, any browser | USB DAC, UPnP, AirPlay, Chromecast |
| Streaming services folded in | Not yet | Qobuz and TIDAL, in Studio |
| Room correction, parametric EQ, convolution | No | Yes |
| DSD | Not yet | Yes |
| Artist biographies, credits, labels, booklets | Yes | Basic library, with online metadata in Studio |
| Mixes and radio from your own records | Yes | No |
| Server runs on | macOS, Linux | macOS, Windows, Linux |
| Control from | Any browser, plus an iPhone app with CarPlay | Remote apps for iOS and Android |
Where Audirvana is genuinely better.
The signal path. Audirvana has spent more than a decade on what happens between the file and the converter, and Studio ships a parametric equaliser and a convolution engine that will correct a measured room. If you have measured yours, that is the tool for the job.
It also plays DSD, runs its player on Windows, and has a remote app for Android. Yamsap runs its server on macOS and Linux, and turns any browser in the house into a remote.
Then there is Origin, bought once at $119.90 and never billed again. That is about twenty months of yamsap. For local playback on a single machine, with no subscription attached to it, Origin is a straightforward answer.
Where we think we are better.
The house. Audirvana sends audio to one output at a time, so the kitchen and the office are a choice rather than two rooms. Yamsap makes every speaker, computer, phone and browser its own zone, each with its own queue and its own place in a record. Play one thing everywhere in sync, or four different things in four rooms.
The second difference is what the library is for. Audirvana is a player with a list of your files attached. Yamsap gives artists portraits and biographies, puts the players and the writers and the label on the album page, opens the booklet that came in the sleeve, and files your classical by composer. Then it listens to the whole collection overnight and builds the next morning’s mixes out of it.
The smaller one is getting at it. Any browser in the house is both a remote and somewhere music can come out, with nothing installed, and the iPhone app carries the library into CarPlay. How that works, or the same comparison against Roon and Plexamp.
Hear when yamsap is ready
Yamsap is $6.99 a month, or $5.99 paid yearly, after a 14 day trial. Builds for macOS, Linux and iOS are close. Join the waitlist and you’ll hear when yours is ready.
Check availability and join the waitlist